Javier Milei, a far-right politician who admires US ex-President Donald Trump, earned the most votes in Argentina’s primary election.
The presidential primary, in which presidential candidates from all parties compete, is seen as a major indicator for the presidential election on October 22.
Mr Milei outperformed expectations by receiving 30% of the vote and defeating more well-known figures.
The outcome has been termed as a “political earthquake” by Argentine media.
Argentina’s primary differs from those in other nations in that it is available to all individuals eligible to vote in the presidential election, rather than only party members. Voting is also required.
Whoever receives the most votes is thus considered the favorite for the presidential election on October 22.
Prior to the primaries, opinion polls showed Mr Milei trailing center-left Economy Minister Sergio Massa and conservative contender Patricia Bullrich.
Mr Milei had 30.06% of the vote with more than 97% of the votes recorded, ahead of Ms Bullrich with 28.27% and Sergio Massa with 27.24%.
Javier Milei is frequently spotted in his signature leather jacket and with long sideburns.
Mr Milei is a former TV personality Despite serving as a Congressmen since 2021, he likes to portray himself as a political outsider.
Javier Milei is often seen wearing his trademark leather jacket and sporting long sideburns
His anti-establishment views have endeared him to Argentine voters angry at the current and previous governments for failing to solve Argentina’s economic crisis.
Year-on-year inflation is above 115%, one in four Argentines is living in poverty and the local currency, the peso, has plummeted to such an extent that football fans from rival nations have torn up peso bills to taunt Argentine fans.
Mr Milei has launched bitter attacks on his rivals from established political parties.
Speaking after the primary on Sunday he told his cheering supporters that “we have managed to build this competitive alternative that will put an end to the parasitic, thieving, useless political caste”.
The 52-year-old has said that if elected, he would abolish Argentina’s central bank, replace the peso with the US dollar and privatise state-run firms which are making a loss.
In a policy that brings to mind Brazil’s former far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, Mr Milei also proposes loosening gun controls.
Mr Milei has also stated that he is opposed to abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk and has included a promise “to protect children’s lives from conception” in his campaign programme.
He has attacked sex education in schools as a ploy to destroy the “traditional family” and is a climate-change denier.
Sporting long sideburns, singing rock songs and often wearing a leather jacket, the 52-year-old is deliberately provocative and often attacks “the left” in expletive-laden outbursts.
His unexpectedly good performance in the primary – 10 percentage points above what opinion polls had predicted – could send the peso tumbling even further once markets open.
Mr Milei’s success was celebrated rapturously by his supporters, whom he told: “We are the true opposition, we are the only ones who want a real change, because remember, a different Argentina is impossible with the same old people, with the same old people who have always failed, with the same old people who have been failing for 100 years.”
The candidates who came second and third, Patricia Bullrich and Sergio Massa, will now try to gain ground ahead of the first round of the presidential election on 22 October.
A second round pitting the top two contenders will be held on 19 November if no candidate reaches the 45% of votes – or 40% with a 10-percentage-point lead – needed to win outright.
With less than four percentage points’ distance between the three top candidates in the primaries, a second round currently seems highly likely.
Argentina is not the first country in the region where an anti-establishment candidate has upset the political apple cart.
In Colombia, independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández surged ahead surprisingly in the first round of the 2022 election, but lost to a former left-wing rebel, Gustavo Petro, in the run-off.
And in Chile, a far-right candidate, José Antonio Kast, won the first round in 2021, but was defeated by the left-wing former student leader Gabriel Boric in the second round.
In Brazil, supporters of the far-right incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, refused to accept his narrow defeat by his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and stormed Congress just days after the latter was sworn in on 1 January 2023.
BBC
